Forum menu
Ultimately, if you like this place then support it with actual cash. Your very presence is not nearly as lucrative as you may think. If you don’t want to support us then that’s ok but the experience we create with the cash from the people who do support us will be aimed squarely at those users.
If non-subscribing posters don't support you, then why haven't you gone subscription-only?
I have to say that this issue of monetising web content and the fall in publishing revenues for hard copy affects almost every website / publisher and its not just STW that have to squeeze every last drop of money out to survive and believe it or not I have a great deal of sympathy for the somewhat precarious position they find themselves in. I would not like to be there and I can believe to find themselves in this position is very difficult. My guess is a few years ago the magazine looked like it would be profitable and that everything was on a sound financial basis and now it looks far less rosy.
different sites have approached this in different ways. Some go advert heavy, some go subscription only, some like the guardian make pleas for voluntary donations
If we are not careful we will end up with a split between fan / amateur produced stuff that is unreliable in its content, sites with paid "advertorial" that cannot be trusted and our only sources of good information behind a pay wall
Whats the solution? I really do not know. I am aware that people with attitudes like mine to paying for web content are a part of the problem.
As for STW - I would pay a smaller subscription for the forum only I think. I simply am not interested in the rest of it so its no added value to me.
I have tried to be honest here as I think its an issue with much wider implications than just on STW. the death of easily available quality journalism would impoverish our society and it really looks to be coming and coming fast.
Your very presence is not nearly as lucrative as you may think.
Why all the ads then? If they’re not aimed at me as a freeloading non subscriber then who are they for?
To be honest, it’s quite lucrative for me in that i get to do exactly the same stuff that I would if I had a subscription but for £20 less. The only content I consume on here is user generated.
Whats the solution? I really do not know. I am aware that people with attitudes like mine to paying for web content are a part of the problem.
That's it. This forum isn't expensive, especially given the amount of time some folks spend on here. It's just that there is still a feeling that it should be free because other people can do it for free, even if this is the place you come back to to argue. Some people have even gone away for a long time only to come back because this place is good 😉 . You might not like parts of it but that's the way that communities work. Some folks DO like the magazine and the rest of the site and the forum is actually the combination of everyone rather than just the bubble of forum only folks. Not wanting to pay is what has forced the majority of news to be click bait with all the resultant ability to manipulate opinion by crap ads being the only way to pay for news and journalism
So yes TJ, Brexit is YOUR fault*
* that last line might not be 100% serious
Why all the ads then? If they’re not aimed at me as a freeloading non subscriber then who are they for?
To help fund. As he said it's not lucrative though.
Ta leffeboy
*hangs head in shame*
To me it's like what I was taught as a kid in the Highlands.
If you're using a path and you see something that needs fixed, then fix it there and then if you can.
I use the STW forum, and for my very small payment, its path is maintained. Seems fair to me.